His name was Eran.
He had carried his flame for forty-seven years.
Not as a weapon.
Not as a burden.
But as a companion.
He had walked the Coalspark path, learned from Shen Tai, once glimpsed Xu Shen's final echo.
He'd healed with Lao Yun's Stitchfire.
He'd sat in stillness beside Tenji.
And now…
His flame grew quiet.
Not because it was dying.
Because it was ready.
He sat beneath the old apricot tree on the ridge.
The same place he'd first lit his spark.
And today, he whispered to it:
"You've walked long enough."
"You don't need to follow me now."
His flame pulsed once.
Not in protest.
In agreement.
It floated from his palm—
slowly, gently—
and drifted down the hill.
Toward the path.
And as Eran watched it go, something new stirred inside him.
Not sorrow.
Not fear.
A beginning.
Not for him—
For someone else.
Across the village below, a young girl looked up from her stonework.
She saw the flame pass over her.
And without reaching for it,
without trying to catch it,
she simply said:
"I'm here."
And the flame paused.
It did not bind.
It did not enter.
It simply circled her once.
And stayed.
Back beneath the apricot tree, Eran exhaled deeply.
For the first time in years, he held nothing.
And it felt whole.
He whispered:
"Goodbye."
And that word…
was the spark of someone else's beginning.
In the Soulstream, a rare update logged itself automatically:
🔹 Event: Voluntary Flame Departure
🔹 Subject: Eran, Pathwalker of Coalspark
🔹 Outcome: Spark unclaimed, freely observed by next bearer
🔹 Classification: Flame That Begins With Goodbye
And the Fire That Waits, ever watching, spoke only this:
"Now even endings walk like openings."